3.3 Million Were Expected at Trade Center Attraction; a Million Haven’t Shown Up

In New York City, it seemed like you couldn’t go wrong getting tourists’ heads into the clouds. Especially if, like One World Observatory, you could boast the highest observation deck in the Western Hemisphere, atop the newly built 1 World Trade Center.

When the observatory complex opened last year on the top three floors of the new Lower Manhattan building, its operator, Legends, predicted that it would draw 3.3 million visitors annually.

That was optimistic by a million.

This week, the video wall in the Global Welcome Center, which displays a running tally of visitors, put the total number at just 2.3 million since the observatory opened on May 29, 2015.

And it appears that the river of tourists has slowed over time. One World celebrated its one-millionth visitor last September, four months after opening. But in the eight months since then, only 1.3 million have made their way to the attraction, perched 1,268 feet above city streets.

With the standard ticket price set at $32, the shortfall in attendance is significant for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the building, together with the Durst Organization. The authority, which has spent tens of billions of dollars rebuilding the trade center, hoped the observatory would be a major revenue generator.

In the past, the authority claimed that its lease with Legends would generate $875 million over 15 years. Legends pays the authority a flat rent of $14.6 million a year, and as much as 50 percent of the revenues above certain undisclosed thresholds.

Legends and the authority insist that the observatory is a success, although they both refuse to release any rent or revenue numbers for the publicly owned property, citing a confidentiality agreement. They say the observatory hit its numbers for 2015.

“Between revenue numbers and customer reviews, we couldn’t be more happy,” said Shervin Mirhashemi, president of Legends, which is owned by the New York Yankees and the Dallas Cowboys. “We look at our attraction as a premium experience.”

Observatories have become a 21st-century craze, inspired in part by the profit-making operation at one of the world’s biggest tourist attractions: the Empire State Building, whose two observatories are a veritable cash machine, drawing more than 4 million tourists annually and producing nearly 40 percent of the tower’s total revenue in 2015 and $82 million in cash after expenses.

Top of the Rock, the observation deck at Rockefeller Center, lures 2 million visitors a year.

Both attractions raised their prices to match One World Observatory’s when that venue opened.

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Attendance at the observatory is below projections. At the entrance on Friday afternoon, there was no line to buy tickets, which go for $32.CreditChang W. Lee/The New York Times

Some new observatories are offering more than a view to attract tourists.

At the Tilt thrill ride at the John Hancock Center in Chicago, visitors can step into a glass-and-steel enclosure as it rotates 30 degrees.

In Los Angeles, when a four-story observatory at the U.S. Bank Tower is completed, visitors will be able to hurtle down a 45-foot-long glass-bottomed slide, 1,000 feet above the street.

But in New York, the attraction has mostly been the view, whether from the Empire State Building, Top of the Rock or, until it was destroyed in the Sept. 11 attacks, the Windows on the World complex atop the trade center’s North Tower, with its high-end restaurant, bars and party rooms offering sweeping vistas over the harbor and Lower Manhattan.

Mr. Mirhashemi said that Legends was still building its business at the trade center. He said the company expected to draw 2.5 million tourists in 2016, and eventually, more than 3 million annually.

In explaining the slowdown so far this year, Mr. Mirhashemi said that tourism typically dipped between January and May but came roaring back in the summer.

But in the first quarter of 2016, the Empire State Building’s observatories saw a 15.6 percent increase in attendance over the same period a year earlier, according to S.E.C. filings.

Legends, which spent almost $80 million building the complex atop 1 World Trade Center, provides marketing and food and beverage services for a number of large sports venues, including Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, Angel Stadium and the Rose Bowl in the Los Angeles area, Levi’s Stadium in the San Francisco Bay Area, and the Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium outside Dallas. One World Observatory is the company’s first observatory, though it will also operate the observation deck at the U.S. Bank Tower in Los Angeles.

The authority selected the company in 2013 to run the attraction at the trade center over more experienced operators.

Barry Tenenbaum, president of New York City Vacation Packages, a tourism company, said the observatory’s problems might be rooted in Legends’ failure to court tour operators, which often buy tickets in bulk, at a significant discount.

Tourists from other countries often purchase a package with tickets from museums and other attractions before they land in New York. The standard package for Mr. Tenenbaum’s company includes admission to either the Empire State Building or Top of the Rock, but not to One World Observatory.

“Legends really doesn’t have a lot of experience in the tourism market,” Mr. Tenenbaum said. “I would like to think that’s why their volume is not up to snuff. I think they’re going after the corporate market as much as the tourist market.”

Mr. Mirhashemi said that Legends was working with tour operators, “but on a very selective basis.”

Soon visitors will have even more choices. On the West Side of Manhattan, a new competitor at 30 Hudson Yards, which claims it will have the highest outdoor deck, on the 89th floor, is scheduled to open in 2019, with another at 1 Vanderbilt, next to Grand Central Terminal, to follow.

Analysts have wondered how many observatories are too many in New York.

But some people think the sky is the limit. “The city could definitely accommodate three, if not more, observatories,” said Andrew Luan, owner of New York Tour1, a guided-tour operator.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A15 of the New York edition with the headline: 3.3 Million Were Expected at World Trade Center Attraction; a Million Haven’t Shown Up. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe